The Red Knight
by aliceinwonderland789
Summary: One day, Break finds a new Rozen Maiden that has recently awoken because of the Alice Games. After Break contracts with her, all Rozen Maidens are suspect for strange murder. But they aren't the real murderers - so they have to find out who. Rozen Maiden: set after the Alice Games, anime. Pandora Hearts: set before Elliot has died and Jack has been revealed, manga.
1. Chapter 1

Strawberry shortcake, caramel pudding, chocolate cake, and a variety of lollipops were laid out on a table. Break picked up a slice of each cake and popped them into his mouth.

Sharon sighed, "Honestly, Break, one of these days you're going to get diabetes. So much sugar wasted." Break shrugged, licking a large lollipop now. He looked out the window and saw Reim walking up the sidewalk to the house.

"Why am I not surprised that you're eating again, Xerxes?" Reim asked as soon as he walked through the door. "News from Pandora is here and since you were too lazy to get it yourself, I decided to bring it."

Break got up and walked to the mail as he bit into another piece of cake. "Thank you, Reim~. And just so you know, I was about to go get that after tea time~." Reim nodded and walked away. Break chewed on a another bite of cake as he searched through the mail. "Pandora junk, Pandora junk, Pandora junk… Ah! What's this~?" A folded sheet of paper with a rose seal on it stood out from all the others. He threw out the lollipop and opened it up. It read:

**CIRCLE ONE:  
**

**WIND NOT WIND**

"Hmm…This could be interesting~."

"What is it, Break?" Sharon questioned, noting the look on his face.

Break's grin widened. "Nothing, milady."

**…**

Later that day, Break glanced at the paper lying on his desk. It was unfolded, showing the bold print typed on it. Break snickered and whipped out a pen. Moving the letter close to him, he circled "WIND" out of curiosity. Break refolded the letter and hid it in one of his desk drawers so nobody else would see it.

**…**

It was a normal day as Break sat in his room with a huge feast of chocolate before him. He made a move to pick up the first piece when he heard the wind howling unnaturally loudly outside outside the glass of his window. "Eh?" As Break turned around, he saw something large and dark flying at him through the window. It smashed through the glass and struck Break hard on the forehead. He fell backwards and hit the back of his his head soundly on the wall. After rubbing his head, Break looked at what had hit him. There was a strange box lying on his lap, but more importantly, his chocolate was crushed and scattered everywhere. Glass pieces were littering the marble floors of his room.

Break blinked and opened the box. In it, to his surprise, was a sleeping doll. The doll probably would be a little above his knee if it were standing up. He picked it up and looked at it. The doll looked so real that it was hard to believe it wasn't human. It had long and wavy silver-blue hair that almost went to the doll's feet, and it was wearing a watery blue dress that was longer at the back than the front. It had matching watery blue sleeves that went from her hand to her hand to her elbow. Break would've considered the doll pretty if not for the slightly haughty expression on the doll's face.

Then he noticed the golden wind that was in the corner of the box. "What do we have here~?" Break murmured, smiling. He picked up the wind and carefully stuck it in the hole in the back of the doll. After Break turned it, he waited to see what would happen. Moments passed, and the doll started to twitch. Break grinned as she started to take a few wobbling steps. Then the doll stood up straight and opened her eyes. They were a beautiful sea green color, and the depth and understanding contained in them was staggering.

The doll twisted her head over to the messy remains of what was once chocolate. Then she looked at the state of the room, then right at Break. "How horrifying," she stated, looking disgusted.

Break's grin widened. "What are you~?" he asked.

The doll walked over to him and smacked his cheek with the back of her hand with surprising force. "Whatever I am, I am most definitely none of your concern." She pressed her fingers together with a sudden excitement. "Unless you become my medium!"

"Your what?"

"My medium! I've never had a medium before!" Her eyes drifted over the blue-skinned doll sitting on Break's shoulder. "And what is that horrible thing?" she asked, pointing to the doll nervously.

"My name's Emily," Emily introduced herself. The doll shrieked and scurried to a corner, covering her head with her arms. "What an idiot, being scared of another doll," Emily continued. The doll in the corner peeked between her arms, glaring.

"So, what are you~?" Break asked again.

The doll stood up from her corner and dusted off her dress. "I'm a who, not a what…but you haven't heard of me?!" she said, her eyes wide. "I'm a Rozen Maiden doll!"

"…So what is that?" Break was completely confused. The doll looked like she might cry. She crossed her arms and crouched down in the corner to sulk.

Break snickered and walked over to the doll, enjoying this. "Do you need anything~?"

The dolls eyes brightened. "It's about time somebody asked! As a matter of fact, yes, I _do_ need something. I need a medium and…tea! Yes, tea would be very nice right now!"

Break laughed and waved his pointy finger in her face. "Not until you tell me your name~."

"Fine, if it's really needed that much. My name is Miki!" She wrinkled her nose. "And while I'm at it, your room is by far one of the worst I have seen!" Miki exclaimed, pointing to the mess by her feet.

"What an uncute brat," Break said, still smiling.

**…**

Break walked back into the room with the tea in hand. Miki gladly accepted it and sat down elegantly in Break's chair.

"So, what's a Rozen Maiden?" Break asked.

"We're dolls with artificial souls. We were made to fight in the Alice Games. Since you obviously know nothing, I will have to explain that to you too. The Alice Games are when we Rozen Maidens fight each other so we can collect the other dolls' souls, or Rosa Mysticas, and become the perfect doll." Miki's eyes lit up at those words.

"Why would you want to be the perfect doll?"

Miki put her hand over her heart tenderly. "The reason we were made is because Father had a dream of the perfect girl, Alice. Alice is unspoiled, beautiful...perfect. So he kept making dolls, but none of them compared to Alice. So once one of us defeats all the other dolls we can finally meet our father, the one who created us. Isn't that great! I was just made recently so I don't know the other dolls' names. I also don't have a medium." She looked at Break hopefully. "You can become my medium."

"What's a medium?"

"A medium is a human that helps a Rozen Maiden by giving them power to fight. In other words, the doll uses the medium's energy to battle. "

Break forced a laugh, still going through what Miki said about the Alice Games in his mind. "No, I will not become your medium." They sat there for some time, drinking tea. Then he sniffed. "Do you smell that?"

"Why, it's a fire of course. A very big one at that," Miki answered while nodding, quietly sipping more tea. Break quickly processed what was happening, jumped up, and ran out the door towards the smell. Miki followed him calmly. They went down flights of steps and reached the kitchen, where smoke was billowing out thickly.

"Break? Is that you?" a weak voice called from inside.

"Milady! Are you alright?" Break shouted.

"For now, yes, but get me OUT OF HERE!" Sharon cried. Break started to make his way into the fire when Miki tapped on his shoulder, giggling.

"It's a pretty big fire in there. I bet you would get burned. Of course, I could always put it out for you."

Break's eyes narrowed. "Then put it out fast."

Miki laughed again. "Can't. If you want me to save your lady, you have to become my medium. Your choice~!"

"Fine."

Miki held out her hand to him. "I'm fairly sure that you have to kiss my ring," she said, gesturing to the rose ring on her finger. Scowling, Break leaned over the ring and kissed it. A light blue glow erupted from the ring and surrounded Break's finger. An identical ring with the golden rose appeared there.

Break stared at it for a few seconds before glancing back at Miki, who smiled. Miki walked up to the fire and stood there. She held out her arms and a shimmering light blue mist flowed out of her hands and surrounded the fire. Then the pieces of mist clumped together and transformed into water, dousing the fire. Break suddenly felt drained of energy as the glow surrounding the water faded.

Miki tapped Break on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow. She led him into the ashes of the kitchen to Sharon. "Would you like me to wake Sharon up?" Miki asked Break, who nodded. Miki took a cup of now cold tea from the table and dumped on Sharon's head.

Break grabbed the collar of Miki's dress and shook it wildly. "What in the world was that for?!"

Miki smiled. "Obviously, I was waking her up. You should really thank me too. What a waste of good tea." Break was staring at Miki angrily when something shot out and sent Break flying.

"Break, you IDIOT! How DARE you take your time in getting here!" Sharon cried, fully awake now. Droplets of tea flew everywhere as Sharon sat up quickly.

Break smiled. "Well it's a good thing you're okay now, Milady. But honestly, it's that _thing's_ fault that I was late~." He pointed to Miki.

Miki waved happily to Sharon as Sharon turned around to look at what Break was pointing to. As she saw Miki, she smiled brightly. "Why, hello! Aren't you just the cutest little thing EVER!" Sharon crooned, full of kindness. "But when did you get here? And who are you? You're a bit short aren't you? I'm full of questions, but you can answer them during tea time. Break! Could you get the tea?" Sharon took Miki's hand and started leading them to a balcony.

"Excuse me, but why did you start a fire in the kitchen?" Miki asked Sharon.

"I was getting really very hungry, and all the maids seemed busy. I couldn't find Break anywhere so I decided to try making something myself," Sharon answered simply. She sat Miki down on one of the chairs. "As you can see, it did not turn out very well. Now, how did Break put out the fire? And why is there tea in my hair?"

"Break didn't put out the fire. I did," Miki corrected proudly. "He's just my medium. And I'm sorry about the tea...I used it to wake you up."

"Thank you for getting rid of the fire. I was sure I was going to die. Also, I'm glad that you found a way to woke me up, no matter what method." Sharon smiled gently. Then she tilted her head to the side in confusion, remembering what Miki said. "What is a medium?"

"He's the one that gives me power," Miki explained. "I'm a Rozen Maiden."

Sharon smiled as sweetly as possible, considering that she had no idea what Miki was saying. "Power? And you are...a Rozen Maiden? What's that?"

Miki jumped up from her spot, angry and frustrated, shouting, "Must I explain it _all over again!_ Do you honestly have no idea what a Rozen Maiden is!?"

Sharon shook her head sadly, sympathizing with the little doll. "So can you please explain it to me?"

Miki sighed and went on with her explanation.

As Miki finished explaining, Break walked into the room carrying two cups of tea. He set one down in front of Sharon and took the other himself, leaving nothing for Miki. She leapt to her feet, her hands curled into fists and her eyes filled with anger, disbelief, and quite a lot of hurt. "Where is my tea!?" she complained, straining to keep her voice steady.

Break calmly took a sip of tea. "You already had yours."

"So did you!" Miki pointed out, shaking a finger at Break and stamping her foot. "So why can't I have some too?"

Break took another sip of tea. "I prioritize. You definitely are not as important as Milady and I," he answered, nodding.

"Without me, Sharon would be dead!" Miki cried.

Break's eyes glowed with anger as he whipped a sword out of his cane and pointed it at Miki, who hissed, her eyes on the blade in front of her. "You have no right to talk to me about death," Break hissed. "Not when you-"

There was a big thump and the blade fell to the ground. Sharon stood over Break, her fan out and her lip trembling. "XERXES BREAK! DON'T YOU DARE USE THAT SWORD OUT HERE!" she yelled quite loudly and angrily, but Miki could tell that she was close to crying.

"But Milady-" Break protested.

"Sit down, Break. There will be no more fighting," Sharon said as she picked up her teacup and sipped it. Miki took the chance to snatch the sword up in her arms. She ran near the door to the inside of the manor and set it down, way out of Break's reach. Miki walked back and sat down in her seat again. Still disappointed that she had no tea, she reached out for a piece of cake. Break made a sound of discontent as he watched Miki grab the cake, though he made no move to stop her. Scowling at Break, Miki took a big bite out of the cake, set on eating as much cake as possible so that Break could have none.

After she was calmed down and stuffed so that she could eat no more, Miki excused herself and walked back in the manor house. She found her way back into Break's room and looked at the mess again. Miki felt bad for what she said, even though she had no clue why Break had gotten so mad at her. "Stupid Break," she murmured. She looked at the shattered window and decided to start with that first.

Lifting her hand, Miki levitated all of the glass shards and fitted them neatly into the window frame. Then she joined the pieces together and finished fixing the window. Then Miki, disgusted as she was, picked up the melting chocolate pieces and chucked them out the door. Even with the chocolate and the glass gone, Break's room was still horrifyingly messy. Candy wrappers were dropped everywhere. Miki collected these too and threw them out the door. Next, Miki straightened everything in the room and sat on top of her case to wait for Break.

Miki had almost gotten bored of waiting when the door opened. She couldn't wait to see what Break would think of her work. He couldn't possibly find anything wrong with the cleaning she had done. Miki sat upright and puffed out her chest.

Break walked in his head lowered so Miki couldn't see his face. _I bet he doesn't want me to know how happy he is, _thought Miki. "Guess what Break! I decided to clean the room! Isn't it great!" Miki said extending her arms and twirling around toward Break. Break looked down at her, and she winced at his face. He was forcing a smile and if Miki had heard evil laughing, she would have thought he was some psycho mad scientist about to dissect someone. Miki looked up at Break. His completely happy smile, made her think that she would dread what was about to happen.

"Tell that to the mess outside," he said calmly. "And that's the second time you've said, 'Isn't that great!' to something that is not great at all." Break grabbed hold of Miki's wrist. She tried running, but being only a few feet tall, it was no use. The next thing she knew, Miki was picked up and tossed into the hallway with melted chocolate all over her dress and her precious case in the garbage beside her. Miki silently cried as she picked her now muddy case out and onto the clean floor. She refused to give in to Break's horrible treatment. She was going to sleep one way or another. But as tired as she was, Miki wasn't just about to give make the _inside _of her case dirty, so she curled up next to it and fell into a dreamless, empty sleep.

**…**

The next morning Miki found herself in the same clothes, the same place, and the same position, but there was a worse smell. She wrinkled her nose and sighed. Not only did Break not have the decency to move her to a warmer spot, but he didn't even give her a blanket. Miki hissed at him angrily. _I refuse to put up with such a _horrible _medium! I'll just run away! Then Break will have to find me! _thought Miki. She tip-toed into Break's room, being as quiet as possible. Going to his desk, she shoved three handfuls into whatever-place-of-her-dress-that-could-hold-candy. She was about to leave when she saw a backpack with a weird symbol that probably signified something. Grinning, Miki grabbed it and dumped all the candy into the bag without really looking if there was anything inside it. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she left the room, forgetting about her special case. Miki walked down the hallway, staring at the beautiful bronze lamps. She came to a grand door with plants carved into the door. Opening it she came to a large room with two curving stairs the joined at the end. Miki started down the stairs when one of the many maids saw her.

"Oh my! What in the world happened to you?!" the maid cried, scanning Miki from head to toe. "Well, come on then, We'll get you washed up and I'll wash your clothes for you." The kind maid ushered Miki down the stairs to a bathroom. Miki grinned. If she was going to leave she was at least going to get something out of this place.

Once Miki was finished with her bath, the maid gave her back her now clean and dry clothes. "Thank you! Do you have any bread? I'm going for a…picnic!" Miki lied. The maid nodded eagerly and got her the bread. As she was putting the clothes and the bread into the bag, the maid looked warily at it.

"I didn't know such a young lady like you could be a member of Pandora?" Miki frowned, and craned her neck to look at the bag. There was the symbol. It had edges like a clock and a handle at where the number twelve would be. The shape was weird and almost looked like fire. _So that must be the symbol for Pandora! I wonder what that is? _Miki wondered, but she nodded, going along with it. "Really! Then you must be really good at fighting chains! How is the latest case going?" the maid exclaimed, surprised. Now Miki was really very confused. Thousands of questions were flying through her mind at once. She had no idea what a chain was and what Pandora was.

"Um… ya, I am pretty good at fighting chains. And the current case is going pretty well…" The maid nodded happily. Miki hurried away from the maid as fast as possible, not wanting to be asked any more questions about whatever Pandora was. Now with clean clothes Miki headed out the door and started the journey of running away.


	2. Chapter 2

Miki walked out to see a vast garden in front of her. There was a large and wide stone path with beautiful red roses surrounding the sides. Miki walked down this pathway and exited the garden. Not wanting to wait any longer in case Break caught her, Miki broke into a run. There was a short distance between the Rainsworth manor and the city of Reviel. All she had to do was continue to follow the gray stone path.

After running for so long, Miki stood with her hands on her knees, panting. Her long silver-blue hair flowed around her as she caught her breath. Before her stood the city. As a new Rozen Maiden doll, Miki had never seen a city with so many humans before, so she wanted to take a look around. Miki stood up straight and started skipping happily, her mood lightened by the prospect of exploring. There was no way she was going to let the nasty Break ruin her day in the city. He wasn't even here!

Miki wandered through the shops, drooling at the fresh pastries and candies. She walked around some more, amazed at how much food humans ate. After going through the entire city, Miki began to observe the humans now. After she watched a family joyfully buy a cake, with the pretty dresses and pressed suits that the family wore imprinted into her mind, Miki turned a corner without looking.

"This new chain..." somebody was saying in a deep and low voice in front of Miki. "I know we don't know much about it, but I think we should do something. After all, this new chain is setting fire to everywh-"

Miki looked up fast enough to see herself crash into one of the people. "Eep!" she cried, falling backwards.

"Watch where you're going, little girl!" growled the man she bumped into. Miki rubbed her head and looked at him. Sprawled on the floor in front of her was a man with jet black hair and golden eyes. To one side of him was a pretty girl with long dark hair and a piece of chicken in her mouth. Judging by her expression, Miki could tell she clearly didn't care at all that the man was just knocked over by a "little girl".

"How pitiful, seaweed head! Yelling at such a weakling!" the girl taunted the man, who glared back. Both of them glanced at a blonde boy with emerald green eyes standing on the other side of the man. The boy appeared to be the judge for the two. Shrugging, the boy held his hand out to Miki to help her up. The second Miki was on her feet and dusting her dress off, the boy pulled out a rose. Miki didn't even know where the rose came from.

"For us to meet here, it must be... fate!" the boy exclaimed, twirling the rose in his fingers. Miki had no idea whether to laugh incredulously, or accept the rose, or to kick the boy in the shin for treating her as though the he was meant to be her equal. Instead, she just stood there, baffled, scratching her head.

"Um..." Miki stammered. "Thank you?... I think." Then Miki struggled to regain her composure. As the boy held his hand out for Miki to take, the girl that was eating chicken before stepped on his back.

"STUPID SERVANT!" the girl yelled. Then she looked at Miki. "I apologize for my servant's idiocy. Humph. But don't expect another apology."

The man that Miki had bumped into in the first place stood up. "Get off Oz, you stupid rabbit! We have other important business to take care of!" He pulled the girl off the boy named Oz and dragged her away. Oz, on the other hand, stood up and handed Miki a dozen more roses that appeared out of nowhere.

"What business?" Miki asked, curious. She recalled what the man had said earlier: something about a chain and fire. "What's a chain anyway?"

Oz looked confused. "Shouldn't you know? You have the Pandora symbol on your bag anyway."

Miki craned her neck to look up at him, thinking desperately to make up a story."Uh...yeah. I was just making sure that you weren't an outsider that knew about the... case."

Oz tilted his head. "You look about our age, despite your height. So you are very young to be in Pandora." He sighed dreamily. "As expected of..._**my future bride!**_" Miki really was getting annoyed by the human Oz. He kept on acting as though she was to like him. The man came back again and took Oz by the arm, dragging him away. Miki was glad.

"Wait, Gil! Wait! Hey! I said _wait!_" Oz was shouting. Suddenly, Oz stiffened and grabbed his chest as though he were choking, but that passed quickly. The man named Gil started dragging him away again after he made sure Oz was okay.

Once the annoying boy was gone, Miki was starting to feel hungry so she looked for a quiet place to eat. From this side of the city, Miki could see a large forest behind the buildings. Miki set off for the forest and once she reached it, sat under one of the trees. Remembering the candy that she had stolen from Break, Miki rooted through her backpack and took out a lollipop.

That was when she noticed the papers. They were half crushed under the many candies. Miki realized that the papers were already hidden in the bag when she stole it from Break. Curious, she stuffed the lollipop into her mouth and took them out. The first sheet held a list of names that meant nothing to Miki, so she tossed that aside. The second sheet of paper was more interesting. It was about something called "Fire Breath", and there was a messy sketch of this creature. Miki read: _This chain breathes fire and has been going on setting fire to cities. Last found in the forests near the edge of England on September twenty-third . Its illegal contractor is unknown. This chain looks like a red dragon with no wings, and it has feline eyes. Last seen by Reim from Pandora. There are thirty-nine victims of this chain, and all were eaten._

"So a chain is basically a monster," Miki said aloud. "A monster with powers. That explains a lot." She was beginning to figure out what this "Pandora" was. "It definitely has something to do with chains. The maid told me that I must have been good at fighting chains. So I bet Pandora fights chains!" Miki was proud of her deducing.

Miki took a quick bite of the bread that the kind maid gave her and looked around at her surroundings. To her left was the city, and to her right was a vast forest. Since Miki had already explored the city, she decided to take a peek at the forest too. Miki laughed, and threw her hands up in the air joyfully. Exploring was so much more fun than having to sit around with Break yelling at her for things she didn't even do!

Miki ran into the forest, no longer hungry anymore after eating quite a few pieces of candy and bites of bread. She jogged past the first few trees at the edge of the forest, and then she ran her fingers along the rough bark of the other trees. Hearing a river, Miki walked until she caught sight of it. She bounced along the side of the river happily. The roar of it drowned every other sound in the forest but one. Miki hadn't noticed it before, but now that there were only two sounds she could hear, she wondered what it could be. Looking around her, Miki pinpointed everything that could make such a loud noise. The river, something possibly in the river, or something in the trees. Then Miki noticed a slight shaking in the earth, almost as if the trees were shivering in fear. She looked around, confused why she heard no screaming from the people living in the city. When she only saw trees, Miki realized that she was quite far from the city and the manor.

Now the shivering going through the trees seemed to become an earthquake, rumbling the ground and shaking the plants in the forest. Now quite curious, yet not the least bit frightened, Miki sneaked along the plants, searching for the cause of the earthquake.

Among the green plants and the green trees and the green grass, there was a big blob of red. Miki took a few seconds to recognize what the big blob of red was: Fire Breath. Miki could soon make out the shape of a lizard. It had strange, twisted diamond-shaped scales and its eyes were strangely cat-like. It hissed, setting fire to one of the trees.

Miki wasn't nervous at all; she could easily fight fire. But since she had just woken up, she hadn't had too much practice fighting. She couldn't even get the stupid clown Break to let go of her wrist. So Miki considered. Fighting the lizard would practically be suicide and it and killed so many people. Even so, she couldn't stand around and watch the lizard set fire to all the beautiful plants in the forest. She made up her mind: she was going to fight the Fire Breath.

Miki walked closer to Fire Breath, though she was more curious than frightened. New things always intrigued her, no matter how scary. She held her arms out in front of her, and willed water to flow from her hands. Such little practice has its consequences. Miki stood there, in front of a very dangerous chain, doing almost nothing. Barely any water trickled from her fingers. Then Miki remembered the river that she had walked by a few minutes before. Even if she wasn't good at summoning water, controlling it would be much easier. Miki took a few steps back to the river. Fire Breath followed her. She shut her eyes tight and commanded the water from the river to stop what it was doing and fight for her. There was a tingling feeling in her arms and she moved her hands in front of her. In the corner of her eye, she could see the sea-blue water floating above the ground, surrounding her. Miki stretched her fingers as far as they would go, lifting the water. Even though it was her power, the water felt strangely alien to her - the feeling of learning something for the first time. And because of that feeling, the water was all wobbly and a slight bit uncontrollable. Miki nearly lost control of it when the full mass of the water was lifted, but she quickly took hold of herself and threw it at Fire Breath.

Fire Breath hissed as it saw the oncoming wave. He swiped at the water with his long claws, and half of it crashed into the trees next to him. The other half hit Fire Breath hard, and it sent him staggering backwards deeper into the forest.

Miki sighed with relief at her work. As Fire Breath stood up, she looked to see what she had done. Fire Breath scales were smoking and there were multiple nasty scratches on his shoulders, face and chest. Considering that Fire Breath was as tall as half the average tree, Miki was very proud of herself, though Fire Breath was not happy. It grunted and hissed at Miki. Fire Breath opened its mouth and blew a huge blast of fire at her. Miki took a few steps back, wanting to run and jump in the river. She could feel the heat on her face and her insides screamed at the crimson flames that licked at her face. The flames resided and Miki coughed wildly. Being able to control water, Miki was harder to burn than most things. Even Miki's dress warded off most of the flames.

Miki knew that the simple attacks that she could do with water would not work. She would need something stronger. Fire Breath roared again, and this time Miki jumped back, not wanting to feel the fire again. Her foot stepped into the river. It stung like ice jabbing into her foot. Then the answer came to her...ice! Miki walked towards Fire Breath, a proud grin plastered on her face. She put her hands to the side and commanded the water to float up. Then she forced the water to freeze and harden into blocks of ice. She curled up her hands into fists and hurled the ice chunks forward. The ice was even harder to control than water, but Miki somehow managed to keep it all together.

They slammed into Fire Breath and sent him falling backwards and crashing into the trees. Miki laughed and jumped up and down, pumping her fist in the air. Her happiness didn't last long. There was a sudden sharp pain in her body, like a cramp after a long run. Miki clutched her stomach, shut her eyes and grinded her teeth together. As painful as it was, it didn't seem like hers. It seems almost distant, coming to her like a bird flying through the wind. Her eyes widened when she realized who it belonged to. It wasn't hers, it was her medium's.

Miki hissed silently at herself. With so little practice, she was forced to use Break's power this whole time. Even though, she hated the clown at the moment, she wasn't going to let her medium die because of her. There was nothing else to be done. There was no way anymore that Miki would beat this chain.

**...**

Break winced as the ring on his finger glowed a clear, watery blue. He was so exhausted that it was painful. To make sure Sharon didn't see, Break hid the ring under the tray of tea he was carrying and straightened his back to appear alert and casual.

"Break?" Sharon asked sweetly. "Do you have any idea where dear little Miki could have gone?"

"No, Milady," Break answered, secretly feeling relieved that the little brat had gone, though, of course, he would never let Milady know that. He stiffened as he felt another burst of energy leave him. What was that Miki doing?

**...**

Miki waited for Fire Breath to burn her to a crisp. She closed her eyes, feeling extremely guilty for using Break's energy. Miki stood there for what seemed like hours before she heard Fire Breath snarl and hiss with frustration. Wondering what was going on, Miki opened one of her eyes. In front of her was a small figure clothed in red velvet with long blonde hair tied up by black ribbons. This figure showed grace and dignity, and she showered Fire Breath with red petals that cut and scraped it. Next to her was a small girl with curly blonde hair with a pink bow and a bright pink dress. She giggled as she danced around Fire Breath, holding it to the ground with strawberry vines. Standing on the grass was another girl with long curly brown hair. She stood there in her long green dress and commanded the plants around her, wielding what seemed to be a watering can. She had two different colored eyes. One was red, the other a bright green. The last girl looked exactly like the girl holding the watering can: she had two different colored eyes, but she was wearing a dark blue tucked in shirt and pants. She swung a large pair of gardening shear as she leaped at Fire Breath. Miki stared in awe at the girls. The sophisticated girl with the red dress, green bow and beautiful red bonnet. As she looked closer, she saw an odd crease in her joints. She looked at her hand. They had the same crease. She looked up, her mouth wide open. These were other Rozen maidens!

Miki watched as the Rozen Maidens hit Fire Breath and sent it staggering to the trees. Miki sighed, hoping that she would be able to become that strong one day. She took a few steps back to the river, to see the whole thing at once. As she took the last step back, she bumped into something. It was a human. But to her surprise, this human was not like the ones she had saw in the city. This one had a crazed glow in his eyes. His clothes were messy and dirty, unlike the pressed suits and yellow bonnets she saw in Reviel. Miki jumped away from the man, not wanting to get any closer to such a filthy human. She looked back at the other Rozen Maidens and saw that they had finished Fire Breath off. It sunk down to its knees into the earth and roared up at the sky. It collapsed with a loud thud. A whirl of pink, yellow, and blue swirled around Fire Breath. Then, from behind Miki, she heard a scream coming from the man. She spun around and saw that the filthy human was also sinking into the ground. He reached his hand out to Miki as though begging her to pull him out. Completely horrified, Miki could only stand there and watch as the man slowly sank into the ground.

"Well, that filthy creature is finished," the Rozen Maiden in red sighed. Then she turned to look at Miki searchingly. "What is your name? You must be another Rozen Maiden. Do you by any chance have some tea? Jun ran out."

"What?" Miki asked, confused. This doll had just fought a fierce chain - and she was asking for tea?! Miki looked down at her blue dress, which seemed to be perfectly untouched. Then she stood staring at the spot where the man disappeared into the ground. Break was going to have a lot of questions to answer. Miki knew that she had to tell Break about this one way or another.

There was a long silence between the five Rozen Maidens, which was broken by a rustling in the trees. Miki immediately knew who it was.

"Break!" she muttered, kicking her shoe at a pile of dirt. Sure enough, Break walked casually through the ferns with the same creepy smile on his face. As he caught sight of Miki, he opened his mouth, but then he noticed the other Rozen Maidens standing beside Miki. He pointed his cane at the others.

"More annoying things?" Break asked, still smiling. The doll in the red dress stomped up to Break.

Whipping him with her hair, she folded her arms. "You've got some nerve calling me a _thing._ Now show some manners and get me tea this moment!"

Break snickered, his smile growing. "How annoying." Now the doll in the red dress flashed her foot out and kicked Break hard in the shin.

"Get me some tea now," the doll in the red dress ordered. Then she turned to Miki. "Is this human your servant?"

"Of course!" Miki exclaimed, seizing the chance. "He is also my medium. Break," she said, turning to Break, "you should get us tea."

Break snickered. "You rotten liar," he said, his smile widening across his face. Miki braced herself for whatever Break was about to do, and sure enough, he raised his hand and whacked it against the back of Miki's head. "That's for running away and stealing the files," he told Miki, still smiling.

Miki's face went red. "What a horrible servant. You...you listen to absolutely nothing I tell you to do!" Miki pointed to Break accusingly. Break chortled. He grabbed Miki's ear and dragged her through the forest. The other dolls followed them, carefully watching.

Break led them to the river that Miki had followed before and through the many trees, still dragging Miki. "STUPID SERVANT!" she cried, waving her arms around angrily. "You have no right to be dragging me by the ear!" Break chuckled maniacally and continued on. Miki had taken enough of Break's rudeness. She willed the river to change its course so that it crashed against Break, drenching him. Miki triumphantly glanced up, wanting to see how Break reacted. Break looked down at her, the smile gone from his face. His hair was swept back for the first time, revealing the left side of his face. But in place of Break's left eye, all Miki saw was a black hole of nothingness. He had no left eye. Miki shrieked in horror, wrenched herself from Break's grip, and backed away as fast as possible, nearly stumbling into the other Rozen Maidens. She pointed, shocked and speechless, at Break's missing eye.

"So I suppose you saw it," Break guessed, covering his eye back up with his hair.

"You could have told me about that! Why didn't you?" Miki cried, still backing away until she really did trip over the other Rozen Maiden dolls, who were watching this exchange from a safe distance. Miki took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and stood up to brush herself off. "Why didn't you tell me?!" Miki repeated.

Break shrugged, still without a smile on his face. "Why should I have?"

"You're my servant!" Miki raged. "You should tell me everything!"

Break laughed. "Wrong. I never properly introduced myself, did I? My name is Xerxes Break, and I am the servant of the _Rainsworth _household. And I'm fairly sure you are not a part of that household." Miki whimpered, suddenly feeling left out. "Therefore, I am not your servant. Is that clear?"

"You can be servants for both, can't you?!" Miki argued.

"Can I? How can I properly protect two people? Like I said before, I happen to prioritize. And you are simply not as important as Milady. No, scratch that. You're not important _at all_, little brat~_._"

"What?" Miki felt like she'd been dumped back in the pile of chocolate. "What?" she repeated. That was the only thing she managed to say. Miki decided that she wasn't going to be near Break any longer. Tears began welling in her eyes. Before she could stop them, they were streaming down her cheeks, quickly becoming large sobs. Miki turned around and ran back into the forest, blindly pushing away branches and and tripping over roots. Finally, Miki plopped down on a tree stump and let the sobs wrack her body.

**..**

Break stood there and watched as Miki ran off into the woods, crying. For a split second, Break felt guilty for the mean things he had said. But then he remembered what Miki had said earlier. '_Once one of us defeats all the other dolls we can finally meet Father! Isn't that great!' _Remembering those words made Break grind his teeth. _Whokills their sisters just for the sake of someone she doesn't even know?! _Break thought angrily. Break clenched his fists. _The worst part was, she was so happy when she said that. _Break snapped out of it and looked up. He was the only one standing by the river. Throwing his head back, he laughed. Who cared about that annoying doll? Especially when she thought killing her sisters was great.

**...**

Miki heard footsteps coming in her direction, so she wiped her eyes to not make a fool of herself and stood up hastily. Coming towards her were the other Rozen Maiden dolls.

"Are you all right?" one of the dolls asked. Miki shook her head, trying desperately to keep the tears from spilling again.

"You should sit down," the doll in the red dress advised. Miki nodded and slowly sat down again on the tree trunk. "Let us introduce ourselves," the doll continued. "We are Rozen Maidens. My name is Shinku, the fifth Rozen Maiden doll. My medium is Jun. I live in Japan with him, but we came over here after seeing that you were in trouble."

The doll in pink jumped up and down. "My name is Hina, and I'm the sixth doll~! I _love _to draw! But whenever I do, SCARY Jun gets all mad at me!"

"Nobody _cares_ about your mediocre drawings, Chibi Ichigo-desu!" The doll that had spoken turned around to face Miki, a gentle smile appearing on her face. "Hello! My name is Suiseiseki-desu! I am very sorry for Chibi Ichigo's behavior. I am a gardener, which is why I hold the watering can. I am the third oldest Rozen Maiden doll-desu." Suiseiseki did a little curtsy.

The next doll knelt down next to Miki. "My name is Souseiseki, Suiseiseki's twin sister," she explained softly. "Suiseiseki told you that she is a gardener. I am also a gardener, except I wield the gardening shears." Souseiseki's different-colored eyes twinkled gently.

Miki sniffled. "I guess it's my turn now to introduce myself," she mumbled. Then in a louder voice she continued, "My name is Miki. I just woke up about a week ago. Break, that awful jerk back there, is my medium. I'm not really sure what number doll I am, since I was made quite a while ago, and I took a really long time to wake up." Miki bit her lip, folding her hands in her lap.

Shinku stepped forward. "It's okay. We are all sisters, and we all love each other the same." She walked up next to Miki and put her hand on Miki's shoulder. The others nodded in agreement.

"We learned quite a few things in the Alice Games," Souseiseki added, looking down at the ground. Suiseiseki's eyes filled up with tears.

Miki looked up, curious now. "Alice Games? It already happened? And does that mean there are more dolls? Who are they? What are they like? Where are they?"

"Yes, the Alice Games already happened," Shinku said. "Nobody won."

"Well, there are three other dolls," Suiseiseki answered Miki's questions, hastily wiping her tears away. "The first doll is Suigintou-desu. She can be a bit mean. She killed Souseiseki-desu! Then there's the second doll named Kanaria. She's completely and utterly useless. Honestly! Thinking that she should stay and fight in the Alice Games-desu!"

"Oh, and then there's this new doll that Father just created~!" Hina-Ichigo exclaimed. "Her name is...is...is...Kira-something!"

"Kirakishou," Souseiseki corrected. "She actually _is_ new. While you, Miki, just took a long time to wake up, Kirakishou is truly the newest doll. She was made in place of Barasuishou, who cheated and _broke _in the Alice Games."

"Broke?" Miki was confused.

Shinku nodded. "Yes. She was made by Rozen's jealous apprentice Enju, not Rozen himself. So her body wasn't strong enough to hold the Rosa Mysticas, since nobody makes dolls as well as Father can. Basically, she was not worthy to become Alice because she was not a real Rozen Maiden. All the Rosa Mysticas shattered her." Miki was still curious about what happened, but then Shinku continued talking: "Now, are you ready to return to your medium?"

"W-what?!" Miki spluttered. "Of course not! There is NO way I am going back there!"

Shinku crossed her arms and sighed. "A Rozen Maiden can not last too long without being near their medium. Exactly how long have you been running away? Very long. Or should I wait till you're forced to go back? It's not a very comfortable feeling, being forced to return to your medium against your will."

Miki understood why she had to go back, but she was still very reluctant to. "Break is just going to be mean and nasty to me!" she argued. "I don't want to go through that treatment again!"

Suiseiseki huffed. "So? We've had the same problems with the runt Jun. But now he gets us tea whenever we want it without complaining too much!"

"True, but Jun is much tinier and easier to annoy! Break is an old man that's much, much older than Jun and always smiles. That's much SCARIER than Jun's yelling!" Hina pointed out. "Hina doesn't think Miki should go back."

"You're not helping, Chibi Ichigo!" Suiseiseki cried, shaking Hina's shoulders. "The point is to get Miki to go _back_, not to stay here!"

"But-" Hina started. She was interrupted by a man with oval glasses, a black and white uniform, and short brown hair.

"Who are you?" the man asked, looking around at the Rozen Maidens. Then he caught sight of Miki's stolen bag. "And why are you holding a bag with the Pandora symbol on it? You're definitely not a part of Pandora." He looked Miki over. "Then you must be the girl Lady Sharon told me to keep an eye out for. My name is Reim Lunettes, and I am supposed to bring you back to Rainsworth Manor."

Miki had no choice but to follow - she was too exhausted to run away again. The rest of the Rozen Maidens filed behind Miki as she was led back to Rainsworth Manor. Reim led them inside the manor and up a few flights of stairs, finally reaching a long hallway that Sharon was walking down.

"This is the young girl," Reim said, turning to look at Miki. It was then he noticed all of the other Rozen Maidens. Sharon noticed them too.

"Why, hello! Are you more lovely little dolls?" Sharon smiled brightly. "Well, come on then! We'll have some tea and you can introduce yourselves and tell me what happened when Miki left... Speaking of leaving, I haven't seen Break recently. Did you see him?" Miki cringed at her medium's name and shook her head. Sharon sighed in disappointment. "That's quite alright. Well, come on then!"

"Tea, finally," Shinku murmured behind Miki. The Rozen Maidens followed Sharon out the balcony where Miki and Break had argued. Miki flinched at the memories. Tea was already laid out on the table. They all sat down and picked up a cup of tea.

Once Shinku took a sip and nodded in approval, they started introductions.

After they were finished, Sharon asked Miki what happened after she left the manor.

"Well, I went to the city, and I met these three strange people," Miki began, leaving out the conversation. "And then after I met the people, I went to the forest to eat. That was when I found the files on the chain in the bag. I read the files, and then I went deeper into the forest. The chain was in the forest, and it attacked me, so I fought back. Then they joined in and helped me," Miki said, gesturing to the dolls beside her. "And then Reim brought us back."

Sharon nodded. "First of all, I would like to have the files on the chain back," she said, so Miki handed them to her. "Also, what were the strange people like?"

"Well, the first person had black hair, yellow eyes, and a hat. He was tall and looked rather old. The second person was a scary girl that had long hair and purple eyes, and laughed...a lot. The last person was named... oh right! Oz-... Oz?"

At that moment, Miki was interrupted by three people bursting onto the balcony.

"Sharon!" Oz called, panting. Then he noticed all of the dolls and Miki.

"YOU!" Miki exclaimed loudly, pointing wildly to Oz. "You're that person who pulled roses out of nowhere!" As if on cue, Oz pulled out three bouquets of roses, and handed them to Shinku, Suiseiseki and Miki. Suiseiseki gladly accepted the roses, happy for the attention. Miki frowned; she still couldn't believe this human had so much nerve. Shinku apparently was thinking along the same lines, as she slid down from her seat, walked over to Oz, and kicked him in the shin, making him hop back and clutch his leg.

"Learn your place, human. And if you wouldn't mind, I have no more tea, so go get me some," Shinku ordered. Oz's carefree smile immediately turned into a frown. He walked back, his head down because he got rejected by the two prettiest dolls. The girl with the long black hair scowled.

"Nobody should hit my servant but me!" she hissed angrily, walking up to Shinku. Shinku didn't flinch; she only looked up at Alice calmly.

"I can hit whoever I want," Shinku replied, holding out her empty cup of tea. "I don't suppose you'll get me some more tea?"

The girl with long hair narrowed her eyes menacingly at Shinku. "You have to be kidding me," the girl announced. "Of course not!" She turned on her heel and marched back to where the third person, the man with yellow eyes, was standing.

Hina-Ichigo and Souseiseki were watching this with amusement. "Hina likes this!" Hina-Ichigo declared, bobbing her head.

"All this over flowers," Souseiseki murmured, suppressing a smile.

Sharon stood up. "Now, there's no need for all this. Gilbert," she said, addressing the man, "get us some more tea. We appear to have finished this pot." Gilbert nodded and hurried away. As soon as Gilbert left, Break appeared from under the table. Miki shrieked, falling out of her chair.

Shinku regarded Break calmly. "This is your medium?" she asked Miki, as if this were the first time meeting him. Miki was still too shocked to register Shinku's words.

"I don't get why he just didn't walk through the door," Suiseiseki muttered to her sister. "That's what any normal person would do. But no, he has to go and scare us to pieces!" Throughout all the comments though, nobody mentioned the forest, for which Miki was grateful.

"Hello, Miki's medium!" Hina-Ichigo greeted Break. "It's nice to meet you!"

At that moment, the glass doors separating the balcony from the inside of the manor started to glow. First, out came a hand, then an arm, and soon a whole body. It was a young Asian boy with square glasses. Miki didn't recognize him, but the other Rozen Maidens did.

This was their medium, Jun.


	3. Chapter 3

"Uh oh," Hina murmured. "Jun's mad. Hina is scared."

"Don't worry!" Souseiseki replied confidently. "Jun never hurts us. All he does is yell until he blows off his steam."

Jun looked up from his spot at the door. He glanced at Sharon, Break, Oz, the girl, and finally Miki. "You found _another_ Rozen Maiden doll?" he asked. "I thought there were only seven of you. You aren't going to bring this one home, are you?"

Miki found her voice. "I just didn't wake up until recently," she told Jun. "I was created when the others were created, though."

Sharon stood up now. "Are you a friend of these dolls?" she asked. "If so, why don't you join us? Gilbert should be back with the tea soon." She turned to face Break, her smile fading. "And where were you this entire time, Xerxes Break?!" Sharon questioned in an annoyed tone. "You have quite a lot of explaining to do."

Break smiled. "I'm sorry, Milady," he snickered. "I've been busy with something quite _unimportant_," he said, laughing. Miki understood his cruel joke and she almost started crying again. The stupid clown was so _mean_!

"Wow," Suiseiseki said. "Even _Jun_ wasn't that mean-desu."

"I heard that!" Jun said irritably, glaring at her.

"YAY!" Hina cried happily. "Scary Jun is nicer than someone!"

Gilbert came in with the tea. "Tea, Sharon."

"Thank you, Gilbert." Sharon graciously accepted the tea, then she poured some for each of the dolls.

"Jun," Shinku said, sipping the tea, "this household makes _much_ better tea than you do. It actually tastes like proper tea."

"I don't care!" Jun glared at her, folding his arms. Miki caught sight of his hand and was surprised to see that Jun had two rings on his finger. "Now - to the reason why I came here." Oz, the girl with long black hair, Gilbert, Sharon, and Break all stared at him intently. The Rozen Maiden dolls stared at anywhere but Jun. "So you guys left the house. Without permission."

Suiseiseki grunted. "Someone like you would only worry. So be grateful that you have such brilliant dolls-desu."

"We saved another one's life. If we took the time to tell you, she could have broke. We just barely made it," Souseiseki added.

"Miki here is very grateful to us!" Hina-Ichigo chirped, her hair bobbing up and down. Jun glanced at Miki in surprise, as though he couldn't figure out why _anybody_ would be grateful to the Rozen Maiden dolls.

"I plan on staying here," Shinku announced, calmly finishing her tea. "The tea is excellent."

"Hina HAS to stay if Shinku is!"

"Let me make this clear! I am only staying to keep an eye on Chibi Ichigo-desu! Nothing else!" Suiseiseki declared. "Somebody has to keep Chibi Ichigo out of trouble-desu!"

Souseiseki sighed. "I am afraid I cannot stay much longer. Grandpa and Grandma would be getting worried by now." She bowed to everyone. "Goodbye."

"What? Souseiseki! You can't leave-desu!" Suiseiseki whined.

"Well, at least one of us will have to make sure they're all right," Souseiseki pointed out. "And since you're staying here, I'll have to go." Souseiseki left through the glass doors that Jun came through.

"Well I cannot stay either, since Nori will get worried, but I will come in the morning," Jun concluded, following Souseiseki.

Reim stepped out onto the balcony, having waited inside the manor for the appropriate time to bring this subject up. "It appears we are forgetting something. We have not discussed the case."

Sharon waved him away. "Don't worry, Miki already told me everything that happened. I know about the illegal contractor and the chain, so really I know everything. I will ask Break to put it in a report later."

At the sound of the word "everything," Break raised his eyebrows and Miki shifted in her seat nervously. Sharon still seemed perfectly happy, so Miki knew that Break figured out that Miki did _not_ tell Sharon everything.

Sharon took the last sip of tea and looked at Oz, Gil, and the girl. "I'm sure you haven't properly introduced yourselves so why don't we start with you, Oz."

Oz took a step forward and bowed. "My name is Oz Bezarius." Miki looked at Oz. He was a _noble_. He didn't _look_ or _act _like a noble! Oz's messy blond hair, care-free eyes and wrinkled clothes looked nothing like a noble! "I am the contractor for Alice," Oz continued, gesturing at the girl. _Sothat is the girl's name! Alice!_ Miki thought. _But contractor?_

Then Alice stepped forward, "My name is Alice, and Oz is my servant...Oh yes, and I am a chain."

Miki tilted her head. _But she looks nothing like a monster, or a chain...but human! _Miki thought. "What is a chain anyway? And why don't don't you look like a monster?"

"A chain is a creature from the abyss. They use an illegal contractor to eat humans. The reason Alice doesn't look like a monster or eat humans is because she is a special chain," Sharon answered.

Miki nodded, but there was still a few more questions she wanted to ask. "What is Pandora? Do they fight these chains?"

This time Break nodded. "Pandora is an organization that watches what happens in the Abyss and prevents chains from eating humans by killing them to send them back into the Abyss." Miki was surprised that Break even bothered to answer her question.

"What about the illegal contractors? What happens to them-desu?" Suiseiseki questioned.

Break snickered. "The illegal contractors have a hand on their chest. Once that hand makes a full turn in a circle or the chain dies, the illegal contractors get sent into the Abyss too."

"One last question," Miki said. "You've mentioned the Abyss a lot. What is that?"

Oz stepped forward. "The Abyss is like another world... except worse." Miki nodded, happy that all her questions were answered.

"Now! Break will show you all to your rooms." Sharon announced.

Shinku held her hand up to stop Sharon. "That will not be necessary. As long as we have our cases, that will be good." She turned to Miki. "You do have your case, correct?" Miki nodded.

Once all the Rozen Maidens had got their cases, and Miki's case was cleaned, Break showed them to their room. Inside was a large bed with a white sheet and yellow pillows in the corner of the room. On the other side was a large mirror and two tall dressers. The Rozen Maiden dolls placed their cases on the floor neatly in a row.

"Why don't we teach you how to fight and control your power better-desu?" Suiseiseki asked Miki, who nodded eagerly.. "First, we have to find a better room to practice in-desu. This room is much too nice." The Rozen Maidens set off to search the manor for a room that wasn't as nice as their room.

They walked out the door and wandered down random corridors, peeking in rooms that they found. The Rozen Maidens soon discovered themselves in a long beige hallway with landscape paintings hanging on the walls and a clean, white carpet.

"Well, we definitely cannot practice here," Shinku announced. "This place is much too clean." At that moment, Suiseiseki tilted her head and shushed Shinku.

"Listen!" Suiseiseki exclaimed. All the Rozen Maidens quieted and listened to what Suiseiseki was hearing. A muted conversation was running through the walls, and judging by the hushed voices, it was supposed to be private. Miki pressed her ear against the wall, and the other Rozen Maidens followed her lead.

"So why don't we go over the trade?" said a voice that Miki recognized as Reim. "You tell us the location of the Baskerville's chain and in return we inform you about progress in future cases," Reim continued.

"That's exactly the way I said it!" a female voice with a strong Welsh accent complained loudly.

"Now, why would you like to know about how cases are going?" asked Sharon politely.

The female giggled. "Because, I have taken an interest to Pandora and the Abyss and that stuff~! I find it rather interesting~."

"And how did you find this out and when can you tell us when?" Duke Barma added

"My sources would rather be anonymous still. And I will tell you where once I get some interesting information.

"Then we will think about it," said an old, fragile, wavery voice that led Miki to believe that she was Cheryl Rainsworth, one of the Dukes as well as Sharon's grandmother. Miki recognized the name from the list she had thrown away in the forest.

"Wonderful~!" the lady said happily.

"Do you need anything?" came a sweet voice from behind the dolls. All the Rozen Maidens jumped away from the wall guiltily. Miki saw the maid that had spoken and recognized her as the maid who had helped to clean her up when she had ran away. The maid smiled at them sweetly, even though they had just been eavesdropping.

"Yes, in fact we do!" Suiseiseki exclaimed quietly, to not disrupt the conversation they were previously eavesdropping on. "Can you show us a room to practice fighting-desu?" The maid nodded eagerly and ushered them away from the door. As they walked away, Miki looked over her shoulder at the door. Out came, Cheryl, Sharon and Reim. Behind them was a tall lady with long brown hair and sharp icy blue eyes. The lady looked in Miki and smiled. Her smile was like a fox's grin, stretching across her face and narrowing her eyes. Miki shuddered and immediately decided she definitely didn't like this person.

The maid continued to lead them through the many hallways and a secret door, till they got to a creepy hallway. Unlike the other hallways, this one was not filled with hurrying maids and the smell of food. There were dim lights and empty floors. "This is one of the less used corridors, that why everything is almost empty." The maid, showed them to a large room, bigger than their bedroom. It had dusty floors and and a small bed in the corner. The only nice sight was the window. But even that was covered by such a large and thick bush that it let no light in.

"Why is there a bush in front of the window?" Shinku asked politely.

The maid tilted her head. "They built more nicer floors than this one. Since this area wasn't finished, they decided to cover it up on the outside with bushes and build walls on the inside. It is only used by the maids to move large objects without getting in guest's way." she answered.

"Hina thanks you even though this is dark and SCARY!" Hina-Ichigo cried, wringing her hands nervously.

"My name is Charmion if you need me," the maid said, leaving the room.

"Now, to get to business," Shinku declared, walking up to Miki. "First of all, we need to polish up your powers. Since you've just awakened, you probably didn't have any practice. Is that why you weren't fighting the...chain when we got there?"

Miki sighed, remembering the fight. "I _could_ use my powers. I just couldn't really control them as well as you can. I mean, controlling the water was okay, but it was wild, and I couldn't even _summon_ water. The only reason why I wasn't fighting was because I didn't want to use any more power from my medium. I'm so _weak_ that I can't fight without a medium's power."

"That's why we are going to practice-desu!" Suiseiseki said, getting out her watering can. "Now what is your power?"

"Like I said, I can control and somewhat summon water. So water is my power," Miki answered.

"Well, why don't we start with summoning water first?" Shinku suggested.

Miki nodded and held out her hands. She closed her eyes tightly and focused on water appearing from her fingers, dribbling out onto the floor. However, Miki opened her eyes to see just a little drop of water appear.

"It's okay, Hina didn't know how to use her powers either when she was new!" Hina-Ichigo reassured the disappointed Miki.

"Maybe you should try focusing on water-desu!" Suiseiseki exclaimed, waving her watering can around.

Miki sighed. "That's what I was doing," she mumbled.

"In that case, don't focus on the water," Shinku instructed. "A Rozen Maiden only survives with her power. You do want to stay here, correct? So think of how the power is important to you, how much you need it to survive in battle. After all, to live is to fight, isn't it?" Miki thought this was good advice, so she tried to follow Shinku's instructions. She closed her eyes again and thought about how she never would have lasted even a second against the fire chain without her powers, and how she saved Sharon's life in the kitchen. She thought about how much she wanted to stay and get to know everyone. Finally, Miki willed the water to come out of her fingertips again.

"Eep!" she heard Hina-Ichigo shriek. Miki opened her eyes in time to see water shooting out of her fingers, covering her hands with a thick yet watery blue glow. The spray of water almost drenched the Rozen Maidens, but Suiseiseki acted quickly and raised a thick wall of plants in front of them using her watering can.

Then Miki felt Break losing energy like when she was battling the Fire Breath chain, and quickly settled down, stopping the flow of the water.

"I can't do it without using Break's power," Miki admitted to the Rozen Maidens. "I feel so guilty every time I use his power since I can feel what he's going through. And what he's going through hurts badly."

"Well, the point of a medium is to give the Rozen Maiden doll power-desu," Suiseiseki pointed out.

"Which means Break must be really weak!" Hina-Ichigo cried.

Shinku nodded. "Yes, that must be the reason. There must be something wrong with Break. Your medium should have adapted to it by now. So do you have any idea if Break is sick with something?" Miki shook her head.

"Then we have a mystery on our hands-desu!" Suiseiseki exclaimed. "But first...you managed to summon water, Miki!"

Shinku nodded again. "But we need the help of someone to solve this mystery." Shinku pulled out a cape and a hat and sighed dreamily, holding it close to her. "If only Kun-Kun were here, he would know what to do!"

"Hee hee hee~. I'm sure the most intelligent Rozen Maiden doll would be much better at helping-kashira~!" came a mysterious, high-pitched voice. Miki turned to the window, which was glowing. In came a small doll with pale green hair, a yellow dress, and an orange umbrella slung over her shoulder.

"Where did _you_ come from-desu?!" Suiseiseki yelped, looking disdainfully at the doll.

"Who is she?" Miki wondered out loud, glancing at the somewhat eccentric-looking doll.

Shinku sighed. "She is the second and most annoying doll, Kana...Kana..."

"Kanaria! Honestly, why does everyone forget my name-kashira?!" the doll spat, waving her arms around angrily.

"Because, like Shinku said, you are the most _annoying _doll," Suiseiseki replied.

"Hmph! Well why don't we get on with the case?" Kanaria sniffed and marched towards the door. So why don't we start with following the suspect, Break? We can find out the most that way." Kanaria stopped suddenly. "Who are you?" she asked Miki.

"Miki," Miki replied. "I'm a Rozen Maiden doll also. But I was late in waking up, so I don't know which number doll I am." She smiled a bit sadly. Kanaria absorbed this new information and continued on her way.

The other Rozen Maidens shrugged and trailed after Kanaria.

"Where _is_ Break?" Hina-Ichigo asked suddenly. The dolls had been wandering around randomly without any luck.

"Well Oz, Gil, and Alice are over, so why don't we check the room where they normally talk about business" Miki suggested.

They walked to the room's doors and stood in front of it. "Break's in there," Miki announced quietly. They all pressed their ears to the door and sure enough, they heard Break's voice speaking to everybody else in the room.

"There is another chain out there somewhere in the east," he was saying, "and oh yes, Milady and I will be coming with you this time."

"Yay! This will be the perfect time to practice fighting!" Miki cheered in a hushed voice.

"And we can continue to follow the suspect-kashira~!" Kanaria added.

"This is working out perfectly-desu!" Suiseiseki exclaimed. They continued to press their ear to the door.

"I believe the carriage is out in the front of the manor. We should get going if we want to reach the town the chain was spotted in before sundown," Break continued. The Rozen Maidens jumped away from the door and raced down the many flights of stairs to the carriage waiting outside before the nobles could discover them.

In the front was a coachman wearing a long brown coat, a beige shirt, and trousers.

"Should we take the place of the coachman?" Hina-Ichigo asked.

Shinku sighed. "I suppose it cannot be helped."

In unison, the Rozen Maidens all crashed into the man, sending him flying into the bushes. Suiseiseki smacked him on the head with her watering can to make sure he was out cold. They grabbed the jacket and Suiseiseki got on the bottom (much to her disappointment), Shinku got on second, Hina got on third, and Miki got on top, her head and hair covered by the man's hat. The result was a rather tall coachman, but the Rozen Maidens were well hidden. Kanaria had to hide under the seats in the carriage. Miki felt sorry for her.

When everything was set, Shinku held her hands out through the sleeves and grabbed the reins. Then, as if on cue, the nobles walked out of the Rainsworth manor. Once everyone was seated comfortably inside the carriage, Shinku tugged the reins. Nothing happened. She tugged again. Still nothing.

"Please get this thing moving," Break ordered.

Miki looked down at Shinku, who was still tugging the reins. "Try kicking the horse, Suiseiseki!" Miki hissed. Suiseiseki kicked the horse with all her might and the horse started moving. The Rozen Maidens lurched over the horse. It moved side to side in a swaying motion, making the Rozen Maidens have to twist to stay on. Miki guessed that from how much they were all moving, they looked like a piece of Jell-O in a tornado. Not only that, but Shinku was twisting so much that the horse moved in a zig-zag pattern across the path.

"The horse seems to be out of control. Is everything alright there?" Sharon asked kindly. Miki was about to reply in her small, girl voice, when she remembered that she was as tall as an adult and she was supposed to be a man.

"Um... yes, just fine," Miki replied in a deep voice. Hina-Ichigo giggled quietly under Miki.

They continued awkwardly along the path, when the horse tripped. Shinku's hands jerked on the left rein before they slipped out of her hands, heading everyone to a tree.

"Oi! What's wrong with the driver?!" Gilbert hissed. Shinku leaned forward to grab the reins, while everyone leaned back to keep balance. The tree was coming closer and Shinku still hadn't gotten the reins. When the trunk of the tree was only a few feet away, Shinku grabbed the reins and pulled to the right. Miki looked down. On the outside, the was a jelly body with Shinku's shoulders sticking out of the "driver". Miki almost laughed at the strange sight.

"This coachman is really a bit creepy," Oz whispered. "He acts as though he has no clue how to steer the horses, not to mention he looks like a discombobulated human being." Miki had to agree with Oz on the last one. The Rozen Maidens really made up a strange-looking human being.

"You! Steer the horses more carefully!" Alice yelled. "Or I'm going to-"

"Don't finish that, stupid rabbit," Gilbert interrupted. "Threatening the driver won't help at all."

"You have no right to tell me what to do, seaweed head!" Alice taunted back.

"Do not fight in a carriage," Oz scolded.

Over their arguing, Miki heard Sharon say quietly to Break: "You and Miki haven't been talking to each other lately. In fact, you've been doing everything to avoid her. Is everything alright between you two?"

"Oh, she's not that important to be worried about," Break assured Sharon. Miki squeezed her eyes shut tightly, hurt at Break's words. She felt a comforting tap on her foot and looked down to see Hina-Ichigo smiling warmly at her. Miki felt a tad bit better with the small childish yet serious face of Hina-Ichigo's comforting her.

Sharon frowned. "But you are her medium. I don't claim to know much about this, but it is my understanding that the medium should always be by the Rozen Maiden," she persisted. Miki nodded, agreeing completely. That Sharon was a wise one. But then she noticed that the carriage had grown quiet; Alice and Gil had stopped arguing.

"Medium?" Oz asked. "What's that?"

Miki tensed. She knew that Sharon hadn't meant for Oz, Gil, and Alice to hear, but...

Sharon sighed. "Miki will _not_ want me to tell anybody...but I suppose I'll have to."

"Don't bother," Break said. "She's not worth talking about." Upon hearing that, Miki felt tears prick her eyes.

Sharon ignored Break. "Miki is not exactly human," she began. "Miki is a living doll with an artificial spirit. She is a Rozen Maiden. And to answer your question, Oz, a medium is somebody who supplies the Rozen Maiden with power to fight."

"Why would they fight?" Alice asked, sounding interested.

"I don't know," Sharon answered, shaking her head. "I never really got to ask Miki that question." Then she looked sideways at Break. "Which reminds me - why aren't you talking to Miki lately?"

"I apologize Milady, but," Break replied, looking out the window, "why _should_ I talk to her?"

"You are her medium!" Sharon exclaimed.

_They're going around in circles,_ Miki thought, a bit sadly. _Sharon is never going to convince Break to talk to me casually._ She focused on the road, and suddenly she saw the direction they were going in: west. The sun was slowly going down in front of them.

"_Shinku!"_ Miki hissed, looking down. "We were headed in the completely wrong direction the entire time! Loop around and go back the way we came!"

"Is everything alright up there?" Break's suspicious voice asked.

Miki made her voice low again. "Yes, sir." Miki looked up again as Shinku pulled the carriage around to face east.

"Why are we going back?!" Miki heard Alice hiss. "This is such a waste of our precious time! There is a chain that we need to kill! What is this driver _doing?!" _Alice jumped up in the carriage, making it shake wildly.

"EEP!" Kanaria cried, much to the chagrin of the other Rozen Maidens.

"Who said that?" Gilbert stood up and swung his head around.

Oz laughed. "Maybe it was the driver."

"No, I'm fairly certain it came from someone in here," Gilbert said, looking at everybody in the carriage.

"Well, none of us did it, seaweed head," Alice told him. "So somebody must be hiding..." She paced in the stuffy carriage.

"What about under the seats?" Sharon suggested. The Rozen Maidens froze, and for a second Shinku forgot to steer. They all faced their ears to the travelers to hear better.

"Huh," Alice grunted. "It's just a doll. How did _that_ get here?" Miki tilted her head just enough to see Break's grin widen.

"She's wearing a rose ring," he pointed out. "Miki wears one too, which means this doll is a Rozen Maiden. A lifeless one, anyway."

"How stupid," Alice huffed.

Kanaria jumped up from Alice's hands and pointed her umbrella at Alice. "How dare you call the most intelligent Rozen maiden doll stupid! Gosh!" Alice leapt back in surprise as soon as Kanaria started talking.

"So you're not lifeless," Break said, his smile growing.

"Of course I'm not! How could _I _have died?! I am Kanaria by the way, the second Rozen Maiden doll."

"Well why are you here?" Oz asked curiously.

Kanaria folded her arms, and turned away, her chin up. "Can't tell you-kashira~. I'm on a secret mission."

"That _idiot_," Suiseiseki hissed from under Miki. "Can't she keep her mouth shut? She nearly blew our cover when she got so worked up over the word 'stupid'!" Miki had to agree with Suiseiseki on that.

"Well, since you're here, you might as well join us," Sharon sighed. "Tell us about yourself."

"I am the second Rozen Maiden, as I said, after Suigintou, who is the first," Kanaria explained proudly.

"Are there other dolls besides the ones we know?" Sharon questioned.

"I'll just go through everybody. The first doll is Suigintou, and the next one is me. The third doll is Suiseiseki and her twin, Souseiseki, is the fourth. Shinku is the fifth doll, Hina-Ichigo is the sixth, and Kirakishou is the seventh," Kanaria listed self-importantly.

Break had been listening carefully. "But Miki is not in the list. Does that mean she's not a true Rozen Maiden doll?" he asked. Miki was upset that Break asked this question. If anybody else asked it, she wouldn't be as upset, but Break seemed to point out everything that was wrong with her. Hina noticed Miki's sadness and smiled to cheer her up for the second time that day.

"No, Miki is _definitely_ an actual Rozen Maiden doll," Kanaria assured him. "It's just that she was late in waking up, but she was created somewhere around everybody else was. She's not the last doll, that's for sure. So we do think of Miki as our sister."

Shinku continued steering, this time in the correct direction. Finally, the destination came into view. It was a small town, with short buildings and simple streets. It was a gloomy town, and the trees seemed to hide it. Miki shivered at the site of it. They walked into the town and Shinku stopped the horse on her second try.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Sharon, Break, Alice, Oz and Gilbert got out of the carriage and onto the stone road. Miki lowered the hat that she "borrowed" from the coachman so that they wouldn't see her. They waited until they were out of view and climbed down from the pile. Then Hina Ichigo, then Shinku, and finally Suiseiseki got off.

They all ran to the carriage door and glared at Kanaria, who shuffled her feet nervously. "Seriously! Getting all worked up over someone calling you stupid-desu!" Suiseiseki cried, shaking her finger in Kanaria's face.

Kanaria crossed her arms. "Well that's over now, and it all worked out, so let's get going-kashira~." Shinku then led the way, with her Kun-Kun cape now on. They followed the group quietly, hiding whenever one of them looked backwards. The group came to a place where there were happy merchants and traders selling their goods.

"It's a bazaar!" Kanaria exclaimed. "I've always wanted to see one!" They looked around, when Miki realized the group they were following stopped suddenly. She pulled the Rozen Maidens behind a trading booth and watched.

"OOOH! Meat! Oz! Get me some of that meat!" Alice cried, grabbing Oz's arm and shaking it violently. The Rozen Maiden dolls saw all this safely from their spot when a gruff finger tapped on Miki's shoulder. Miki squeezed her eyes tightly shut, hoping with all her heart that it wasn't Break. Thankfully, it wasn't. It turned out to be another merchant with bread to sell.

"Bread? It's freshly baked and at a very reasonable price!" the merchant offered, taking out a loaf of bread.

Miki shook her head. The other Rozen Maidens turned around and watched this exchange. "I'm sorry," Miki apologized, "but I don't have any money. Otherwise, I would definitely buy your delicious bread." She inhaled the warm aromas rising from the bread, her stomach grumbling. The merchant heard it and gave Miki the loaf of bread. She looked at the merchant, puzzled. "But I don't have any money," she repeated.

"No, you're hungry, so I'll give it to you," the merchant replied, her blue eyes twinkling. Miki thanked the kind merchant and divided it between the Rozen Maidens. They scarfed it down in seconds and looked back up at the group. Alice skipped happily with a piece of meat in her hands, while the others walked along beside her, looking annoyed.

"Of course, you had to go and waste time on _meat, _you stupid rabbit!" Gilbert glared in Alice's direction. The Rozen Maidens slipped silently from their hiding places and followed them, making sure to not lose them in the crowded area of the bazaar. Miki looked up. The sun was starting to go down, and the Rozen Maidens would have to find a place to sleep soon.

"Why don't we call it a night~?" Break smiled, leading the group into an inn.

"We can't go in there," Hina-Ichigo pointed out. "We have no money to sleep at the warm, comfortable inn."

"Then we will have to sleep in the alley-" Miki started.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Shinku cried loudly. "I refuse to sleep on that filthy ground! Who knows what has been there?!I will never, ever touch that!"

Kanaria snickered, "What a crybaby~."

Shinku glared at her and turned away. "Never...I will never sleep there."

Suiseiseki huffed dramatically. "In that case, we're going to have to break into a house and sneak into a basement-desu! Shinku, just deal with sleeping in an alley for _one_ night!"

Shinku sighed, and swirled around to face Miki, folding her arms stubbornly. "When we get back, I am going to watch Kun-Kun and you are going to get me tea, whenever I want it!" Miki opened her mouth to protest about why _she_ was the one being picked on, but one pleading look from the rest of the Rozen Maidens changed her mind.

"Fine," Miki grumbled rather reluctantly. "But when you go back to your home in Japan, I'm free from your authority. Deal?"

"Deal," Shinku replied contently, smiling. Her happiness faded when she took a look at the alley. She stood, her feet rooted to the spot.

"Come on-desu!" Suiseiseki said, hauling Shinku into the darkness.

"Good night, everybody!" Hina-Ichigo cried cheerily after everybody had found a somewhat comfortable spot to lie down at. Shinku, after pacing around for a while, finally settled with sitting. Miki laid there, her eyelids slowly getting heavier as the sun went down. She looked up to see a bright full moon, covering her in a silver glow. It was like a lullaby, and Miki felt herself drifting off to sleep. As her breathing deepened, Miki heard tiny little whispers in the back of her mind, so soft and quiet that she barely even noticed them at first. It filled her brain like honey, sweet and soft.

'_Come to me,' _said the sweet, beautiful voice. '_Then you'll be safe.'_

'_From what?' _Miki asked in a dreamy voice, confused.

The voice laughed, but it was a happy, female, bird-like sound. Miki instantly wanted to laugh too, so the voice would not get sad. '_Why, from everything of course! Isn't it scary being out there? So why not come with me?'_

'_Where am I going to go?' _Miki asked.  
_  
_The voice laughed happily again. '_Does it matter, little doll? I didn't want to have to tell you this, but, the nobles don't truly want you here. If you come with me, I can take you away from all it.'_ Miki wanted to cry after hearing this from the lady, knowing it was true, and decided she was going to go with the voice. Miki followed the sweet, syrupy voice, longing to go faster. She willed her feet to go as fast as possible, so she could escape this horrible world.

Suddenly the lady shrieked. '_Please! Help me! There is someone who doesn't want anybody to be happy! Please! You'll help me, right? Then I can take you to meet your Father!'_

'_Of course I would!' _Miki gasped, her hands clenching into fists. Who would ever want to threaten her happiness? She grinded her teeth together: her medium.

Miki's vision was a blur. She could see what she knew was her enemy and what her friend was. It was like she was seeing with her brain. Miki twirled around to face Break. But to her surprise, the whole gang was there. Miki felt tears sting her eyes, as she stood, glaring at them. _How dare they ruin my dreams! Do they really hate me that much? _Miki felt more tears, streaming down her cheeks. _Why do they have to be so cruel? _

Miki made waves water flow out of her hands and crash into them. The enemy fell back more and she realized, that the others were helping too. Miki felt a smile between the tears. At least there was some people she could trust... unlike the other traitors.

'_Thank you! You should never trust such horrible people. But you can always rely on me. Now, come,' _the voice cooed warmly. Miki started running to the voice, when something blocked her path. Miki hissed again, tears pouring down from her eyes. She could tell who would be this cruel. It was the one and only, Break.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: There was a comment asking whether Alyss was speaking to Miki earlier. It wasn't Alyss - it was the chain speaking in her mind. The chain has the power to lure their victims to be eaten.**

"Miki?" The cruel Break grabbed her by her shoulders. "Is there something wrong? You seem a bit stupider than usual. Has the crazy chain gotten to you yet? It's probably best not to listen to her~!"

'_He is trying to keep you from being happy!'_ the voice said. '_He is so selfish because he is trying to make you think I am wrong. And he's made you so miserable already.'_

"Stop it, Break!" Miki cried, readying her water. "You've treated me so horribly already! I think I deserve at least one bit of happiness!" With that, she sprayed water over Break so that he let go, spluttering. "Stop being so selfish," Miki sobbed. Just as she was about to run towards the voice again, the horrible Break grabbed her by the arm.

"You really are such a fool~."Break stared at Miki, who had stopped struggling, though there was still an amused smile pasted on his face. "What about your sisters? Don't you care about them? Or you were just using them to help you - until you are going to kill them in the _Alice Games?_"

Miki looked up to see that Break's smile had turned to an almost evil one, and he was quite serious, annoyed, and angry. She glanced down at her feet, ashamed at herself. The voice in her head had faded; Break had gotten rid of it. Break's evil grin widened, and he leaned down and whispered in Miki's ear. "The people who do bad things for others are the people I hate the most."

Miki started. "W-what?" she spluttered, confused. But Break let go of her arm and walked away.

"Honestly Milady, why did I have to go and do it? That uncute doll gets on my nerves~!" Miki heard Break say to Sharon.

Meanwhile Sharon stood there with a tissue, having watched Break talk the sense back into Miki. "So. Beautiful..."

Miki felt tears fill her eyes again at everything that happened - how could she have let the chain into her mind? Now, Miki was determined to kill the chain for everything it had done to her. She walked over to the rest of the Rozen Maidens and screamed something they would never give up for the crazy chain to snap them out of their trance.

One by one they all snapped awake, and stared at the chain under the moonlight. It was a slim, bird-like figure with large, graceful wings. There was a long, beautiful tail with a metallic golden color. long feathers covered the body like a suit. Where hands and feet normally would be were long talons. It had large, golden eyes with the light of the moon reflecting off them.

From the sidelines, Break snickered. "Don't forget the illegal contractor~!" he said in a sing-song voice. Miki glanced at the human next to the chain. Her eyes widened as she recognized the glitter blue eyes. It was the merchant that gave her bread. Judging by the gasp of the other Rozen Maidens, they recognized the merchant, too.

Miki shuddered. She didn't want to kill the kind lady!

"Well? Are you going to sit there all day? Or are you going to fight the chain?" Alice yelled impatiently, stamping her foot.

"Alice! Don't be so mean!" Oz said, holding Alice back.

"I don't think we should kill the chain..." Miki mumbled nervously. "The merchant - that illegal contractor - was so nice to us. She gave us free bread."

"Are you kidding?!" Alice hissed, glaring at Miki. "Release the seal, seaweed head!"

"DON'T KILL THE CHAIN!" Miki screamed. "The merchant doesn't deserve to go into the Abyss!"

"All chains have to go," Gilbert replied, though Oz was looking at Miki strangely. Oz whispered in Gil's ear, who stared at Oz with his mouth open and nodded his head. Then Gilbert put his hand on Oz's head. There was a blue glow around them, and Alice turned into a huge rabbit with a scythe in her hand. Miki couldn't believe it. Oz had told Gil to release the seal. She had always thought that he was better than that, despite his actions towards her.

The large rabbit, Alice, leaped forward and thick metal links shots from behind her, flying at the chain. With unbelievably fast reflexes, the chain pushed its wings downward in a powerful stroke and flew into the air, avoiding the links. Alice jumped up and swung her scythe at the chain, missing by centimeters. Miki watched this battle fearfully along with the other Rozen Maidens, partially hoping for Alice to kill the chain, partially hoping Alice didn't kill the chain.

Alice smiled evilly. "LEARN YOUR PLACE, WEAK CHAIN!" she growled, swinging her scythe again at the flying chain. More deadly links erupted from behind Alice and flew towards the chain. It jumped again, but this time the chains twisted and shot through the golden feathers of the chain's wings. The chain howled, falling awkwardly. It flapped madly, trying to stay up in the air in vain.

Miki watched, at first in horror. Then she remembered what the chain had done to her as the battle went on. _The chain deserves to die,_ Miki thought grimly. Even though the kind merchant would be sent all the way into the Abyss, the merchant would still be alive.

Miki nodded to herself and looked up at the falling chain. She focused on a flowing blue river that she could sense was nearby and imagined it flying to the chain in hard chunks of ice. Miki opened one of her eyes. The chain lay on the dusty paved road with its golden feathers lying all around it. Its body had large patches of pink flesh showing. The chain was drenched with melted water, and Miki concentrated on turning the water into if not something sharp, something that somewhat resembled a keen edge. This time, Miki made sure to use most of her own power instead of Break's. It felt more satisfying, even if Miki was more exhausted at the end.

She glanced up at the air, and the newly formed ice hovered a few feet above the chain. Miki willed them to jab themselves into the chain's body and wrench themselves out. Miki grimaced at the flailing bird-chain in front of her and let the ice fall to the road harmlessly. Despite all the harm done to it, the chain was still alive, and it shakily stood up, screeching at the Rozen Maidens.

"Now let me, the most intelligent Rozen Maiden, destroy this chain once and for all!" Kanaria took out her violin and placed it on her shoulder. "Symphony of Roses!" Kanaria cried, playing a piece on her violin. Instantly, a large whirlwind appeared, blowing crazily around. The whirlwind leaned toward the chain and stumbled to it. It picked up the chain and turned it around wildly, but keeping it in that area so it didn't damage anything. Miki watched, with her mouth open. She didn't know Kanaria was this good at fighting. The whirlwind gave it one last spin and dumped the chain on the ground. It lay there in a complete daze as Kanaria walked back to the others.

"My turn now-desu!" Suiseiseki exclaimed, stepping forward. She summoned her watering can and swiped it in front of the bird, letting loose a spray of green-tinted water. Thick green vines erupted from the ground and enclosed the chain in a tight cocoon, squeezing it hard. Then Hina-Ichigo and Shinku ran forward. Hina-Ichigo lifted her hands, and strawberry vines appeared, wrapping tightly around the cocoon and lifting it into the air. Next, Shinku raised her palm, and a flurry of pink petals materialized, slicing through the middle of the cocoon and coming out the other end, cutting through the chain itself.

Miki winced. "Ouch," she murmured in empathy. The chain would _surely_ be dead by now after going through all that.

To prove Miki right, there was a swirl of pink, red, and yellow around the chain and the merchant. Miki shut her eyes tight as the merchant disappeared, screaming, into the portal to the Abyss.

"I'm sorry," Miki whispered to the merchant softly, rubbing her eyes. "But the chain had to go."

Meanwhile, Oz, Gil, Sharon, Break, and Alice, still in the form of the large rabbit, had been watching the Rozen Maidens battle with their mouths hanging open. When the Rozen Maidens finally finished the chain off, everybody was staring at them in awe.

"Well that was impressive," Oz said simply, making a big understatement. The others nodded their heads vigorously.

Break licked a lollipop. "That was very interesting indeed, watching you fight." His grin widened. "You finally managed to do something useful~!"

Sharon shot a glance at Break and then smiled back at Miki. "You did wonderfully, Miki!"

"I guess you aren't a weakling after all," Alice added rather reluctantly.

Hina-Ichigo clapped her hands joyfully. "That was fun! Hina liked it a _lot_! Much better than the Alice Games! Is there another chain to fight anywhere?" She looked at Sharon hopefully.

Sharon forced a calm smile, a bit frightened of Hina-Ichigo's reaction. "I'm afraid not."

Shinku stepped forward determinedly. "Now it's time for tea."

**...**

Sharon, Break, Oz, Alice, Gilbert, Miki, and the other Rozen Maidens sat quietly around the white cloth-covered table. There was an awkward silence as everybody waited for the next person to speak.

Finally, Oz spoke up. "You all mentioned the Alice Games? What is it?"

Shinku sighed a bit sadly. "The Alice Games is where we, the Rozen Maiden dolls, fight to become Alice. Alice is the perfect doll that our father, Rozen, dreamt up. That's why we exist in the first place - we are Rozen's attempts at creating Alice. None of us were as perfect as Alice, though, so we collect all the other dolls' souls. Once we have all the dolls' souls, we can become Alice. There have been a few Alice Games in the past already, but the main Alice Games was the one that happened a couple of weeks ago." All the Rozen Maidens shuddered except for Miki.

"What happened there?" Sharon asked.

This time, Suiseiseki explained. "The doll Barasuishou started it all-desu. She led Souseiseki to believe that Father was broken because he couldn't find Alice, so Souseiseki pushed me away when I tried to stop her and started fighting the doll Suigintou-desu." Suiseiseki took a deep breath. "Souseiseki was the first to 'die,' killed by Suigintou. Then the next to go was Hina-Ichigo. Before, Shinku had already defeated Chibi Ichigo, but Shinku allowed Hina-Ichigo to live. But then Father decided that it was breaking the rules, so Chibi Ichigo was gone." Miki widened her eyes in surprise - this was news to her.

Shinku continued, "Later, Barasuishou started the Alice Games. She defeated Suiseiseki, who was protecting Kanaria. Before Barasuishou could take Suiseiseki's Rosa Mystica, Kanaria grabbed it to protect Suiseiseki. But eventually, Barasuishou defeated her and took both Rosa Mysticas." At this point, Kanaria was wincing visibly. "Quite a while later..." Shinku hung her head, unable to continue.

Kanaria noticed this. "Suigintou died, killed by Barasuishou, protecting Shinku-kashira," she completed solemnly. "Then Shinku was about to 'kill' Barasuishou for everything Barasuishou had done to all the peaceful Rozen Maidens, but Jun talked sense into her. So Shinku stopped herself, despite her anger, and because of that..."

"...Barasuishou defeated me with her crystal hair piece," Shinku finished, clasping her hands tightly together. There was a long silence in the room with everybody contemplating what the Rozen Maidens had just said.

"Hina is tired. Can we go...to bed now?" Hina-Ichigo asked, rubbing her eyes.

Suiseiseki stood up in her spot stiffly, stretching. "Maybe we should go to our room. I am a bit tired, anyway."

Shinku got to her feet. "Yes. It's about time that we went to sleep."

"Mi-chan will be worried about me," Kanaria said, also standing. "I need to go back." She walked toward the glass door and disappeared in a swirling portal. Miki followed the other Rozen Maidens out to their room.

**...**

Break watched curiously as Miki followed the others out. He couldn't deny the story of the Alice Games hadn't moved him as much as it did for Milady. Break tilted his head and glanced at the sniffling Sharon. He sucked on a lollipop while smiling amusedly. The Alice Games was _much_ more interesting than he had thought. They sat around the table in silence at the absence of the dolls. But the dolls' behavior upon leaving was most strange.

Break pondered this when Reim came charging in.

"Lady Sharon," he began, panting. "I have terrible news!"


End file.
